Sphagnum strictum Sull.
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Authority
Sharp, Aaron J., et al. 1994. The Moss Flora of Mexico. Part One: Sphagnales to Bryales. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 69 (1): 1-452.
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Family
Sphagnaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Plants yellowish, generally in low, dense mats or small cushions. Wood cylinder of stem yellow-green; cortical cells in 1-3 layers, without pores or fibrils. Stem leaves very small, bluntly deltoid, scarcely bordered; hyaline cells not divided, without fibrils or pores, sometimes with membrane pleats at the leaf tip, each cell on the inner surface with an irregular membrane gap that near the leaf tip occupies nearly the entire cell. Branches usually in fascicles of 5 (2 spreading); cortical cells without fibrils, each apically porose. Branch leaves squarrose, ovate, involute-concave, ending in a broadly tmncate, toothed apex, denticulate along a marginal resorption furrow toward the leaf tip, smooth at back of the apex; hyaline cells fibrillose, distinctly convex on the inner surface, slightly so on the outer, o n the outer surface toward the leaf tip with 2-6 large, round to round-elliptic, distinct but not ringed pores along the commissures, more numerous (up to 12 or 16), more nearly elliptic, and more distinctly ringed below, on the inner surface with few (2-4), somewhat smaller, elliptic, strongly ringed pores in the corners and occasionally along the commissures, often in 2s and 3s at adjacent corners; green cells in section trapezoidal to narrowly triangular, exposed on both surfaces or only on the outer, the inner walls of hyaline cells where they abut the green cells usually faintly papillose. Dioicous. Spores 31-39 µm, finely roughened or nearly smooth.
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Discussion
Fig. 5
S. strictum Sull., Musci Allegh. 201. 1845.
S. mexicanum Mitt., J. Linn. Soc, Bot. 12: 624. 1869.
The plants form low and usually compact cushions or small mats. T h e stem leaves are m u c h smaller than the branch leaves. T h e cells of the branch cortex are uniformly porose at slightly protruding upper ends. T h e spreading to squarrose branch leaves are broadly tmncate, with margins denticulatebordered above because of resorption. Very fine papillae usually roughen the inner walls of hyaline cells where they adjoin the green cells.
The widespread 5. compactum Lam. & DC. has numerous pseudopores on the outer surface of hyaline cells of branch leaves, and the green cells are central and included. Widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, it has also been found in Guatemala and northern South America.
Distribution and ecology - In seepage on roadbanks at about 1000-1700 m altitude; Hidalgo (Tenango de Doria) and Oaxaca (sine loco, type of S. mexicanum; Cerro Salomon, NE of Ixtlan de Juarez); Andrews (1913) reported that a specimen at the Copenhagen Botanical Garden, designated as "Mexico, Liebmann, Musci 10," was wrongly named by Schimper as S. squarrosum. — Mexico; Dominican Republic and Guadeloupe; Venezuela and Ecuador; Newfoundland to Rorida and Louisiana, primarily in the Coastal Plain; northwestern and central Europe. The type of 5. mexicanum and material from Guadeloupe and the Dominican Republic were referred by Eddy (1977) to the ssp. pappeanum (C. Mull.) Eddy, otherwise known from Africa and Malaysia. The subspecies differs only slightly in anatomical detail and somewhat more robust stature and, in Africa, is said to grade into the spp. strictum.
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Distribution
Mexico; Dominican Republic and Guadeloupe; Venezuela and Ecuador; Newfoundland to Rorida and Louisiana, primarily in the Coastal Plain; northwestern and central Europe.
Dominican Republic South America| Guadeloupe South America| Venezuela South America| Ecuador South America|